A stroll down Memory Lane...

I just found out about the Rinkside site (it is so amazingly awesome!!!), and I spent a very happy afternoon watching some classic programs that I hadn't seen in years. Here are some thoughts that came to my mind:

--Katarina's "Carmen" has to be the best artistic program I've ever seen. The choreography to the music was just spectacular. I was surprised it didn't receive any 6.0's. However, I was really surprised to see that she only did two kinds of jumps (toe & salchow; she doubled the loop).

--Also from the '88 Olympics, Midori Ito was technically SO much better than anybody else! She did 7 triples compared to everybody else's 4 or 5. AND she performed every kind of triple (minus the axel) as well as a triple toe-triple toe combination. She should've gotten 6.0's for her technical mark. Her program would still be competitive today. Midori was truly a wonder.

--I always thought Oksana Baiul's winning performance at the World Championships was clean. But I was surprised to see that she clearly two-footed her double axel at the end. Plus she didn't do any combination at all. Her choreography was quite good, however. I think perhaps she turned pro before really realizing her full potential, especially on the technical side. I remember her doing a beautiful triple salchow-double loop combo at a practice at the Olympics; I don't know why she didn't do one in an actual performance.

--Back to Katarina. Her Cincinnati World performance was probably her best technically. She landed 5 triples (2 toes, 2 salchows, 1 loop), and I remember reading in "Inside Edge" than one of them had a slightly flawed landing, but they sure looked clean to me. She clearly outskated Debi Thomas, who skated very well right before landing 5 triples but Debi two-footed her loop. It's the best I've ever seen Katarina jump.

Anyways, I recommend Rinkside for everyone. It's a great program to relive some amazing skating.